During the Indian independence struggle, Indian leaders recognized the need for a local military institution to meet the needs of an armed force loyal to sovereign India. The British Raj was reluctant to commission Indian officers or to permit local officer training. Until World War I Indians were not eligible for commission as officers in the Indian Army.

Despite demands, the British resisted expansion of the Indian officer cadre. Indian leaders then pressed for the issue at the first Round Table Conference in 1930. Eventually, the establishment of an Indian officer training college was one of the few concessions made at the conference. The Indian Military College Committee, set up under the chairmanship of Field Marshal Sir Philip Chetwode, recommended in 1931 the establishment of an Indian Military Academy in Dehradun to produce forty commissioned officers twice a year following two and a half years of training.

The Government of India transferred the erstwhile estate in Dehradun of the Indian Railways' Railway Staff College, with its 206-acre campus and associated infrastructure, to the Indian Military Academy. Brigadier L.P. Collins was appointed the first Commandant and the first batch of 40 Gentleman Cadets (GC), as IMA trainees are known, began their training on 1 October 1932. The institute was inaugurated on 10 December 1932, at the end of the first term by Field Marshal Chetwode.

In 1934, before the first batch had passed out, then Viceroy Lord Willingdon presented colours to the academy on behalf of George V. The first batch of cadets to pass out of the Academy in December 1934, now known as the Pioneers, included Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, General Muhammad Musa and Lieutenant General Smith Dun, who became the Army Chiefs of India, Pakistan, and Burma, respectively.

Through the first 16 regular courses that passed out of the academy, until May 1941, 524 officers were commissioned. But the outbreak of the Second World War resulted in an unprecedented increase in the number of entrants, a temporary reduction in the training period to six months and an expansion of the campus. 3887 officers were commissioned between August 1941 and January 1946, including 710 British officers for the British Army. The academy reverted to its original two and a half year course of training at the end of the war.[1]

Following the Independence of India in August 1947, a number of trainers and cadets left for Britain and Pakistan. Brigadier Thakur Mahadeo Singh, DSO, was appointed the first Indian Commandant of the academy.

In late 1947, the Chiefs of Staff of the Indian Armed Forces following the recommendation of a 1946 committee headed by Field Marshal Claude Auchinleck, decided to initiate an action plan to commission a new Joint Services training academy. In the interim, they decided to conduct Joint Services training at the IMA. The IMA was renamed the Armed Forces Academy and a new Joint Services Wing (JSW) was commissioned on 1 January 1949, while training of Army officers continued in the Military Wing.[2][3]

The academy was renamed as the National Defence Academy (NDA) on 1 January 1950, ahead of India becoming a Republic. In December 1954, when the new Joint Services training academy was established in Khadakwasla, near Pune, the NDA name along with the Joint Services Wing was transferred to Khadakwasla. The academy in Dehradun was then rechristened as Military College.

Brigadier M.M. Khanna, MVC was the first IMA alumni to be appointed Commandant of the IMA at the end of 1956.

In 1960, the academy was renamed back to its founding name, as the Indian Military Academy. On 10 December 1962, on the 30th anniversary of the academy's inauguration, the second President of India, Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, presented new colours to the academy.

From 1963 until August 1964, following the Sino-Indian War, the duration of regular classes was truncated, emergency courses were initiated and new living quarters for cadets were added. However, unlike previous wars, the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965 and that of 1971 did not disrupt academy training or graduation schedules.

The academy is located in the foothills of the Himalayas, about 8 km west of Dehradun in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. The campus is on National Highway 72, which separates the North and South Campus. The campus of the academy originally spanned 206 acres which was transferred to the academy along with existing buildings from the Railway Staff College. The academy area is 1,400 acres (5.7 km2).

Built in 1930, the Chetwode Hall on the Drill Square houses the administrative headquarters of the IMA and is also the hub of academic training. It has lecture halls, computer labs and a cafe. On the opposite side of the Drill Square is the Khetarpal Auditorium. Inaugurated in 1982, it has a seating capacity of over 2000.

A newer wing of the Chetwode Hall, added in 1938, houses the Central Library. It has over 100,000 volumes and subscriptions to hundreds of periodicals from across the world, besides multimedia sections. In addition, there are two branch libraries closer to the cadet barracks across the campus.

The Commandant's residence is a handsome colonial structure with a landscaped 6 acre garden. It offers a panoramic view of the Tons River silhouetted by the Himalayas.

In the earlier years, cadets were accommodated in GC Quarters, consisting of the Kingsley and Collins Blocks. With the growth of the IMA to five battalions of cadets, some battalions are accommodated in barracks in the South and East Campus.

The IMA helipad is located in the Tons Valley in the north-west of the campus.[5]

Developed in the 1970s, the South Campus of the IMA includes facilities for the Somnath Stadium and the Salaria Aquatic Centre. Other facilities on the South Campus include stables with a stud farm and a small arms shooting range.

The North Campus includes the Polo Ground along the Tons River. a Tons Valley to the Northwest of the campus is bounded by the forks and bends of the Tons River. It is used for para-dropping and para-gliding, besides battle training.

The IMA War Memorial, with its pillars and columns of Dholpur stone, pays homage to the alumni of the academy who have fallen in the course of action. At the sanctum sanctorum of the memorial is a bronze statue of a Gentleman Cadet with a sword presenting arms.[5] The memorial was inaugurated by Field Marshal Manekshaw on 17 November 1999, just weeks after the Kargil War. IMA officers led and fought in the war, with some of them becoming household names in India for their gallantry. Among their ranks were two Param Vir Chakra recipients and eight Maha Vir Chakra recipients.

A trainee on admission to the IMA is referred to as a Gentleman Cadet (GC). One reason for this is that the academy expects its graduates to uphold the highest moral and ethical values. Inscribed in the oak panelling at the Eastern entrance of the Chetwode Hall is the academy's credo, excerpted from the speech of Field Marshal Chetwode at the inauguration of the academy in 1932:

The safety, honour and welfare of your country come first, always and every time.The honour, welfare and comfort of the men you command come next.Your own ease, comfort and safety come last, always and every time.

The freshman GCs hail from diverse backgrounds with multifarious habits and grooming. The Academy plays a vital role in moulding those differences and helps them anchor into a common bonding. Doing things together bring a sense of fellow feeling. No GC gets preferential treatment, all are allowed to shape up together; together they break bread, together they play and together they receive the same kind of training. This bonding helps them to develop values such as camaraderie, esprit de corps and oneness that go a long way to give a separate identity to the corps of officers in the Army.

It is simply that the future officers are made to acquire the finer graces of life and living which invests them with a personal dignity and a sense of appreciation for those finer pursuits which distinguish man and civilization. IMA encourages a Gentlemen Cadet to reflect on the greatness of India’s diversity, her secular foundation and to honour the traditions and customs of the Army. In a nutshell, IMA habitat helps him to become a rounded personality.

From grueling route-marches to photography, painting, seminars, term-papers, tours and sports, the training is an action filled scenario nurturing their mental and physical potential. Each and every GC is allowed equal space for growth within the given time frame. The pace of training at the Academy is fast and intense. Therefore, it is no wonder that it becomes a test of one’s mettle and capabilities, and in psychological terms a foretaste of what the trainees would face in the battlefield where there is no room or no scope of explanation and rationalization for failures. The completion of training is therefore, a sort of self-assessment which awakens and activates one’s self-esteem, sense of honour and dignity. A GC learns a great deal of values of life during his short stay in the Academy.

IMA Cadets are organized as a Regiment with four training battalions, of four companies each. There were sixteen companies in 2013. Battalions are named for generals of the Indian Army (except for Siachen Battalion), while companies are named for battles of the Army.

Cadets undergo training at the IMA for one year. An exception are trainees selected via the Combined Defence Services Exam of UPSC. These cadets who are graduates of a non-military college undergo training for one and a half years.

With the purpose of grooming future military leaders of the Indian Army, the training regime at IMA moulds the physical and mental attributes and sharpen the leadership skills of cadets. Physical training, drills, weapons training, leadership development and practices form the focus of the training

IMA alumni have led and fought in every conflict in which the Indian Army has been called upon to render service since the academy was established. Numerous alumni have earned laurels, made the ultimate sacrifice and been honoured with gallantry awards.

Sam Manekshaw, an alumnus of the IMA, was the first in India to become a Field Marshal.

Making of a Warrior, a documentary by Dipti Bhalla and Kunal Verma, provides an inside look at the IMA's culture, traditions and training regime. The 2004 Bollywood film Lakshya (film) is partly shot in IMA.